Project Facts
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Country: USA
- Year of Completion:2004
- Client: Los Angeles Unified School District / California Science Center
- Architect: Morphosis Architects Website
- Size: 18,208 m2
- Pupils: 690
- Construction Sum: million [2004]
- School building Programme/ Initiative: LAUSD Strategic Execution Plan
Overview
Located at the corner of the Los Angeles' Historic Exposition Park, the school buildings integrate themselves into the fabric of the existing parkland, including a DC8 aircraft hovering over the school's drop off area. The school shares both facilities and focused teaching ideologies with the California Science Centre's education wing.
The school aims to become one of the country's leading centres for excellence in maths, science and technology. This is reinforced by the close physical links to the California Science Centre [the largest science museum on the American west coast], enabling the school to share cutting edge facilities and learning experiences. Importantly, the school maintains a central aim that it remains a community facility rather than becoming a specialist unit.
Themes
Integrated environmental design
The orientation of the buildings creates a series of shaded spaces that enable the children to play and eat outside whilst escape the intensity of the sun.
Integrated flexibility for space and learning
The school is able to share facilities with the California Science Centre. The close relationship enables the children to share learning experiences in cutting edge facilities, which include digital media labs, sound stages and editing suites. The school has access to both the Science Centre and Natural History Museum as additional learning environments.
A bamboo garden set above the school's hall looks out over the exhibition hall and will provide secluded spaces to facilitate different sensory learning spaces.
Integrated social and physical context
The Science Centre and the school's communal facilities are housed within the converted National Guard Armory. The armory was built as part of the collection of buildings and landscape elements constructed for the 1913 opening of the park. The park has been progressively built over and the historic significance of some of the buildings diminished. The Aerospace Museum, built by Frank Gehry in 1983 masks one complete facade of the armory. Morphosis' original scheme retained far less of the original building fabric of the armory. An increased historical interest has lead to a clearer division between the Science Centre and School.
Sitting next to a busy road, the armory and the exposition site rose garden, the new linear element of the building provides a strong presence on the street. This is further re-enforced by earth banking that reflects the shifted ground plane of the park. A green roof lifts the ground plane above the site, wrapping the building into the park's historical fabric.
Responses to developing integrated ICT
In sharing facilities with the Science Centre, the school has access to cutting edge technology not usually afforded to schools.
Gyroscope Inc, a specialist museum development firm had complete responsibility for the design of the educational environments within the Armory Building. They worked with Morphosis on the integration of the large scale environmental tools such as the pond, bamboo forest, tower and pog wall.
New pedagogies and blended learning styles
The school's vision statement makes clear its intent to draw on a dynamic partnership, not only with the California Science Centre but also with the other museums in the exposition park and the University of California to re-enforce the pedagogical focus on maths, science and technology teaching.
Examples of stakeholder and user participation in the design process
The school and the Science centre worked with LAUSD and the architects to refine the building programme and possible teaching links.
Sources
Facilities Services Division Website
Architect, April 2008 Website
Morphosis - Morphopedia
Links
School Website
Gyroscope Inc Website
